Uruguay - 23.02.2014 - 7th Post

19.02.2014

ARGENTINA

Leaving Argentina today for Uruguay, already have bus tickets for Gualegualychu to Mercedes but not Mercedes to Montevideo (another story) we have been told there should be no problem getting them.  Passed through the border painlessly, through Frey Bentos (yes, it is a town in Uruguay) and arrived at Mercedes, purchasing the ticket with ease as has been promised.

After 1½ hours, we were waiting at the allocated platform with 5 minutes to go, no sign of our bus or even any waiting passengers!  5 minutes over departure time decided to ask someone if there was a delay, she looked at our tickets and looked confused.  Calling us over to the ticket desk, we were informed the bus had left an hour ago.  It transpired our watches were on Argentine time, Uruguay is one hour ahead!

Fortunately for us we only had to wait another 1 ½ hours for the next bus, and bless them, they took pity on these ‘senile backpacking pensioners’ and didn’t charge us for the new tickets.

Another lesson learnt – check the time zones!

MONTIVIDEO – URUGUAY

The city of Montevideo is huge, half of Uruguay live here.  It’s not a memorable place, a few nice plazas and classy streets, but we didn’t see too many inspiring places, in fact, we took the opportunity for both of us to get our hair cut.

Plaza Independencia

Old Montevideo Market, now a restaurant area.

We did visit an interesting museum, dedicated to the event of 42 years ago when a Uruguay plane crashed in the Andes, killing 29 passengers.  The remaining 16 survived 72 days in the Andes by eating the dead.  A horror story, but well portrayed in the museum.

20.02.2014

Punta del Este – Uruguay 

Found this ‘beachy’ place, 150km north of Montevideo.  The place is flooded with residents from Montevideo at weekends, and pretty busy during the summer months, as it is now.  The one downside is the cost of everything, mostly the food, you get half as much for twice the price – OUCH.

We’re now into ‘putting our feet up’ mode, was going to spend just 3 nights here but we like it so much we’re stopping for a further 2.

                                       Sea Lions – feeding from the fishermen in the harbour.

We will be making our way up to Rio on Tuesday, an overnight bus plus a flight.  Seems that the end of ‘South America 2014 ‘ is getting closer and closer.  We still have the Rio Carnival and 6 days in Buzios to look forward to.

Argentina - 14.02.2013 - 6th Post

Argentina

10.02.2014

After 3 lovely nights in Puerto Madryn, it’s another bus day, the 1,340 Km up to Buenos Aires.  As we couldn’t get Premier class seats we had to settle for ‘Cama’ – 80% reclining but still very comfortable. 

How do you expect a long coach journey to start – yes – of course - a game of Bingo.  All passengers were presented with a Bingo card, the prize - a bottle of Argentine wine.  We felt we were at a severe disadvantage as we could only count up to 10 in Spanish, but after pleading with our master of ceremonies, he agreed to call in both Spanish and English.  We swear the English numbers didn’t match the Spanish!  We were a long way behind the Argentine winner – revenge for the Malvinas!

Then came dinner, after knocking back the various meats, cheese and then the dessert, the waiter turned up 15 minutes later with the hot main course – somehow lasagne doesn’t taste the same after a custard pudding!

Buenos Aires is a vibrant and busy city, with some quite stunning buildings. 

We had a guided tour around their beautiful Opera House.

The Argentines are hugely carnivorous, the main dish in most restaurants is the Parrilla, a metal cradle piled high with barbequed meats of every description, a dish for two would quite easily feed a normal family of six. As a healthy vegetable addition, these Parrillas are normally accompanied with a huge dish of french fries.

Most dishes are extremely over generous, we now realise that it’s best to share a single main course between us, to avoid us being charged for excess baggage on the way home.

Their other obsession is the Tango.  You can sit in a Plaza, having a drink while the tango is performed in front of you for just a few pesos in tips.

We attended a Tango show in the basement of their famous coffee bar – Café Tortoni.

This is the way they performed:- 

This is the way it should be done:-

14.02.2014

            After 3 nights in Buenos Aires, we are on our way to Gualeguaychu, we were really struggling get someone to sell us bus tickets – we then found out that Gualeguaychu is pronounced ‘Wally-Y-Tur’  - crazy.   

We have made this trip to see the Argentine equivalent of the Rio Carnival.  Expecting to see a somewhat rough and ready display, we were totally taken back by the size and quality of it all.  Staring at 10.30am and finishing at 3.00am, it was quite mind-blowing.  If this is Gualegualychu, what will Rio be like?

A really magnificent display.

We leave Argentina tomorrow, we are off to Uruguay – not planned – but it’s on route to

Rio Janeiro.  We shall miss the steaks, the wine and the friendliness of the people.

       

Puerto Madryn - Argentina - 06.02.2014 - 5th Post

Argentina

06.02.2014

Rio Gallegos

A 3 hour journey from El Calafate, we have to go south east to pick up the highway to head north. Rio Gallegos is a most unremarkable and forgettable town, and the late booked hotel was even worse, we were forced into picking this hotel, as somebody had booked the original hotel for the wrong night!

Took the overnight bus the following day for a 17 hour trip to Puerto Madryn.  Managed to get Premier class, fully reclining ‘bed’type seats, served with an aircraft type meal complete with wine – the Midland Red was never like this.

It seems like a awful way to travel but these coaches are really comfortable, and with no railway system, we found it an ideal way of moving around a very large country.

07.02.2014

From Wild Terrain to Wild Life

Puerto Madryn

A lovely seaside town that is the main hub for visiting the Valdes Peninsular, famous throughout Argentina for the annual migration of whales and penguins.  Unfortunately, we were out of season for the whales, they spend the summer close to the Antarctic, returning for the winter, but the peninsular has a lot more wildlife to offer.

We were able to see Guanacos, a member of the Llama family, Armadillos, Sea Lions, Elephant seals, a small colony of Magellanic Penguins, Rheas – a small member of the ostrich family and many more including a wide range of different birds.

09.02.2013

A further excursion took us first to Punta Delfin to take a boat and try and spot pods of Commerson’s Dolphins.  We were in luck, dozens of these small dolphins swam around and under our boat, giving us a spectacular display.

We then set off for Punta Tomba, where a huge penguin colony has made their summer home.  It’s calculated that more than 400,000 of these Magellanic Penguins have built their nests, mate and bring up their young in this vast area. With the addition of the juveniles, this brings the total to more than a million.  

There are nests every where you look, the colony is so large, some ‘families’ have to walk nearly a kilometre to reach the sea.  The penguins and their offspring go about their daily business totally impervious to the human spectators – a remarkable sight.

                            Two long excursions, but two very rewarding and entertaining days.

South Patagonia - Argentina 29.01.2014 - 4th Post

South Patagonia – Argentina

29.01.2014

El Calafate 

Finally left Chile, usual chaos at border control, one guy trying to process 30 people through customs while 3 other guys sit at their windows doing Suduko!

Once through the border we had three hours of brushwood and desert like landscapes, with just the odd herd of sheep here and there, and the odd farmer on horseback.  Once we were within 10Km of El Calafate, snow topped mountains and turquoise lakes started to appear.  Once in the town it was so apparent in the difference between here and the Chilean towns – so much more sophisticated with tidy gardens and swish bars and restaurants.

30.01.2014

We set off on a bus excursion to the Perito Moreno Glacier, after 30 minutes the bus was having clutch problems and it was decided not to risk the 2 hour journey.  We were left on a freezing hilltop (to enjoy the wildlife, ha,ha.) while the driver returned to El Calafate for a replacement.

ANOTHER BUST BUS!!

The glacier was clearly visible at least 3Km away – it’s more than 15Km wide at it’s widest point and extends 30Km to the rear, and is more than 50 metres in height above the water level.  The total area is bigger than Buenos Aires.

There are higher glaciers in the area, but this is the most spectacular.

You can view the face of the glacier from a range of well constructed balconies, every couple of minutes you can hear, and sometimes see, huge pieces of the face of the glacier come crashing down into the lake.  Awesome!

The highlight of our trip was a boat ride that went really quite close to the face, a breathtaking sight of mother nature at it’s most spectacular.

                                                    It really was a day to remember.

01.02.2014

Another day – another bus – just 3 hours from El Calafate

El Chalten

El Chalten has been named ‘The trekking capital of Argentina’ and justifiably – the treks are superb.  At first sight El Chalten appears to be a bit of a shanty town, but once you are inside, the majority of places are quite new and has some excellent hostels and many superb restaurants, we have had two of the best evening meals we have tasted anywhere – real fine dining at an economical price.  The Argentine steaks are wonderful.

With no petrol stations, inhabitants have to travel the 160km to El Calafate to fill up, once you have been there and back and a trip to the mother-in-laws, you need to fill up again! 

We were also told there was just a single ATM in the town, what they didn’t tell us is that it’s rarely got any money in it.  We were panicking the night before leaving as we had not enough cash to pay the hostel bill. Just before we were about to sell our bodies, a queue appeared at the ATM - 45 minutes later we were solvent again.

02.02.2014

Los Glaciares National Park

Trek to Mt Fitz Roy

We took a minibus to the outskirts of the National Park and then an 11km trek to the base of Fitz Roy Mountain, passing lagoons, glaciers and terrific vistas.

On arriving at the base of Fitz Roy and looking up to the viewpoint and it’s horrendously

steep climb, some person said “I’m definitely not climbing up that” 

An hour and a half later, with common sense out of the window, we stood at the peak with aching thighs and shaking knees marvelling at the sight that greeted us.  Magnificent granite peaks, a glacier pitching into a lake and snow covered summits.

Most certainly, the Argentine El Chalten competes with all that the Chilean Torres del Paine has to offer.

We were blessed with super weather on this trek which made the 9 ½ hours and 24Km seem almost like a stroll in the park !!!!

We have really enjoyed El Chalten and the 4 superb treks we have made. We leave for a return trip back to El Calafate tomorrow and then leaving Patagonia for Rio Gallegos on the east coast.  

From here we will make our way northwards towards Buenos Aires.